How To Purge the sin in the Believers Life... 1 Cor 5:6-13
The image here is that of the Passover supper;
1. Jesus is the Lamb of God who shed His blood to deliver us from sin;
John 1:29 'The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold!
The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!1Peter 1:18-25). 2.The Jews
in Egypt were delivered from death by the application of the blood of the lamb.
Following the application of the blood, the Jewish families ate the Passover
supper. Exodus 12:15 "For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast.
On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything
with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel"
Paul used the Passover supper to
illustrate his point; see Exodus. Leaven to the Jews was always a symbol of sin
and corruption... so, before Passover, they always scoured their houses to
remove all traces of leaven. Christians must have the same attitude... we dare
not allow the yeast of sin to grow quietly in the church or our home, and produce
trouble and shame. Christ died for us, not to make us like the world, but to make
us like God. "Be holy for I am holy" 1 Peter 1:13-16 says "Therefore gird up the
loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be
brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not
conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who
called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, "Be
holy, for I am holy."
All Of This does not mean that church leaders are to be "spiritual
detectives" who pry into the lives of the members. But it does mean that each
church member must see to it that the leaven of sin is not growing in his or her
life. And, if sin becomes known, the leaders must take steps to protect the
spiritual welfare of the church.
So... How To Purge sin in our lives?
Sometimes smart people do dumb things, wise people do foolish things, and
Godly people do sinful things. For some of us those things are a big, dark, ugly
past. For others, it’s a secret we’ve never told anyone. Maybe it’s an abortion you
had, or an affair, or you stole something.
Regardless of how we
messed up, the one thing we all share in common is that we’ve all made
mistakes. The Bible says in Rom 3:23 "All have sinned and fall short of the glory
of God" Yet, many of us don’t know how to recover afterward... So, how do we
get right with God again after we’ve done something entirely wrong?
There are several kinds of Christians that we are
warned about in the Bible...
1. the Believer who will not settle personal differences, Matt 18:15-17
2. the Believer who has a reputation for being a flagrant sinner,1Cor 5:9-11
3. those who hold false doctrine, 1Tim 1:18-20, 2 Tim 2:17-18
4. those who cause divisions, Titus 3:10-11
5. Believer who refuse to work for a living, 2 Thess 3:6-12
David was one of the most Godly men in all of Scripture... He loved the Lord,
yet in a weak moment he found himself committing adultery with Bathsheba and
trying to cover it up by murdering her husband.
Lets read Psalm 51... because it gives us a snapshot of what’s going on
inside of David’s heart after Nathan the prophet confronts David in his sin in
2 Samuel 12; This Scripture also shows us the steps David took on his "road to
spiritual recovery..."
Here are the Seven Steps that David took to get right with God...
Step 1: Come clean with God. Get honest and get your mistakes out in the
open. Sometimes we’re afraid of losing our reputation, or being publicly exposed.
And sometimes we’re afraid of losing the security we got from indulging in our
"favorite sin..." But the peace we get in return for coming clean will be worth
it! We can trust that God’s ultimate outcome will be good.
Step 2: Ask God for forgiveness. We have to ask God to wash, cleanse and
forgive us. Notice that David doesn’t try to negotiate a deal with God or minimize
his sin. He says, "Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your
lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out
my transgressions” v. 1
Step 3: Own responsibility for your sin. We need to own our part in our
mistake and also its consequences. "For I acknowledge my transgressions,
And my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, And
done this evil in Your sight — That You may be found just when You speak,
And blameless when You judge. v. 3-4
Step 4: Accept God’s forgiveness and cleansing. Like David, once we confess
that we messed up and tell God we want a restored relationship with Him, at that
very moment we receive His grace and forgiveness. But in order to experience
God’s forgiveness, we first need to believe that we are forgiven, accepted and
loved unconditionally. "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my
mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in
the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop,
and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow" v. 5-6
In his prayer for forgiveness the David made the same requests as before, but in
reverse order; cleanse... wash, and blot out. When David spoke of God's
cleansing him with hyssop, he was suggesting to the use of "hyssop..." at the
religious ceremonies to sprinkle sacrificial blood on the altar... This represented
the removal of sin through the shedding of blood!
Step 5: Rquest a fresh work of grace. Have you ever been tempted and then
found yourself saying, "I’ll go ahead and sin and then ask for grace later"? What
we need is for God to create a fresh work in our hearts... so that we don’t want
anything to do with sin. Like David, we need to pray, "Create in me a clean
heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away
from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to
me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit"
v. 10-12
Step 6: Resolve to use past failures for ministry. God wants to use the most
difficult, sinful thing we’ve ever done and make us a trophy of His grace. God will
use all of our sins to glorify Him, if we let Him. David tells God, when you do this
new work in me. "Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners
shall be converted to You. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
The God of my salvation, And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your
righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, And my mouth shall show forth Your
praise" v. 13-15
Step 7: Know that God will forgive our sins, He will! If we make a sacrifice of
humility. David knew that God did not desire simply an animal sacrifice from him.
He needed to find forgiveness before he could sacrifice a peace offering to God.
The sacrifice he had to bring was a broken, contrite and a crushed heart - a
humbled spirit fully penitent for sin. That is what God desires and will receive.
"For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in
burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a
contrite heart - These, O God, You will not despise" v. 16-17
Step 8: Pray for limited fallout. Our sin never affects just us individually. But we
can pray that in His grace, God will minimize the damage our sins might have had
on those around us. Over and over in Scripture we are reminded that we serve a
God who, although doesn’t treat sin lightly, understands that we are mortal and
struggle with sin. "Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion; (the people around
me) Build the walls of Jerusalem" (protected my loves ones) v . 18